Hey, it’s Ilya, the co-founder of type.today and CSTM Fonts. Some time ago, two TypeMedia graduates approached me with a question: The two of us want to open a type foundry together. What do we have to think about? What do we have to discuss? That’s what I shared with them in a slightly nostalgic talk, remembering myself starting a business and reflecting on the values and practices we’re holding onto now.

Discuss all possible scenarios beforehand

Keeping in mind previous well-known divorces in business, my advice is to sign a contract between the two partners, outlining how everything is organized and how decisions are made. Deciding everything 50-50 is tricky because no one is truly taking responsibility. There will be situations where you have opposing opinions, and in such cases, the easy solution is to give one person 51%, making it easier since the same person will always have the final say.

From my experience, for instance, when it comes to business aspects, I usually have the final call, while for design decisions, I trust Yuri to make that call. When I don’t have a strong opinion, I simply go with his decision. Since type.today is a collection, from a business perspective, our goal is to make it as large as possible to sell more fonts. But from curators’ perspective, we have a concept, and all fonts need to align with it in some way. So, in practice, we split everything 50-50, but within that 50-50, there are plenty of compromises.

I would suggest coming up with very practical scenarios. Ask yourselves, for example: what if a client comes along with an interesting project but no budget? Discussing this will help you anticipate how your partner will react in the future. Talk about what happens if one of you loses interest in running the studio together. What if you become hugely successful, and in five years, Monotype offers five million dollars to buy your collection? These things may never happen, but it’s important to at least discuss them and align your views on the business, the studio, and its future possibilities.

Ilya Ruderman and Yury Ostromentsky interviewing each other, 2016

Start a typeface together

We all know how to be individuals, how to work on our own typefaces, but from my experience, it’s the joint projects that bring the team together. Even if you’re planning to release only your own projects, having one where you collaborate might be helpful.

In CSTM Fonts’ experience, Kazimir was essentially that kind of project. Even though we had worked together on custom projects a lot before, working on our first retail release was helpful and valuable. We set deadlines, broke them, discussed the designs — it took ages. We made mistakes, had to redraw all the ball terminals, and that was painful. But finally, there was the happy moment of publishing the first version.

Kazimir by CSTM Fonts, 2016

Kazimir Text by CSTM Fonts, 2016

Choose your licensing logic wisely, it’s not an easy thing to change

Nowadays, there’s no such thing as a standard EULA. At first glance, all licenses look the same, but when you get into the details, they’re all different. Everyone develops their own licensing logic — some studios have a desktop license that allows logotype usage, others require a separate license for that.

Working on type.today’s licenses was very complicated because it had to be acceptable to a variety of designers from different countries. We reviewed different EULAs from our partners. In the beginning, our main source of inspiration was Commercial Type, but since then, our EULAs have changed a lot. We update them every year. It’s a lot of work, and we have specialized lawyers who are already trained and highly knowledgeable. Since we’re a tiny industry, it’s super difficult to find an intellectual property lawyer who understands both the logic and complexity of fonts — as graphics and as software.

Changing your licensing logic midway is extremely difficult. Imagine a client who bought a desktop license and paid for a specific number of installations — then you change your license and suddenly ask them, How big is your company? Now, this client, a large company with many employees, suddenly owes you money and is furious.

In theory, you can find an existing EULA and ask the studio if you can use and adapt it for your needs. But the key is to define your licensing logic from the very beginning.

Ilya Ruderman presents type.today in Rostov-on-Don, 2016

There’s no need to patent every title, but keep industry standards in mind

I know foundries that fully protect their fonts — not like we do at CSTM Fonts. We don’t register our typeface names with any patent offices. But there are some industry rules, like avoiding duplicate typeface names. Everyone wants their name to be unique so customers can search the typeface online and find it easily. I remember once we had a working title that slightly resembled an already existing typeface. So I contacted the author and asked if they would mind us using that name. The author disagreed, so we just found a different name for the project. The main goal here is to respect the industry, respect other designers, and avoid clone or misleading names.

From a legal perspective, in Europe and the U.S., you can usually provide a screenshot or a web archive page showing the date you publicly presented the typeface name. In most cases, courts will recognize that as proof the title belongs to you. But if you didn’t do your research and the same name had already been publicly presented before, you might be sued and forced to change the name of an existing typeface.

Big City Grotesque by CSTM Fonts, 2016

Pilar by CSTM Fonts, 2016

Don’t rely on a specific social media, be a part of the community

Social media is a constantly changing thing. Social media two years ago was completely different from what it is now, and I’m absolutely sure that in two years, it will be different again. Our main platform is Instagram As some members of our team are living in Russia we have to follow the Russian law. According to the law, every time we post links to Instagram or Facebook we have to mention the fact that these socials belong to Meta, which was recognized as extremist by the Ministry of Justice if the Russian Federation. Both our storefronts, today and tomorrow, have large accounts there. But it’s incredibly hard to measure how they impact our sales. Sometimes, with an audience of 100,000 people, our posts get just 100 likes. I have no idea how Instagram’s algorithm works — one moment it’s pushing stories, then it’s not, then it’s all about reels. It feels like everyone is trying to figure out their own way to run and grow their Instagram, experimenting and failing. I wish I knew the secret formula, but I have no clue.

Ilya Ruderman presents type.today in Riga, 2016

I believe it’s important to create content for the community — sharing behind-the-scenes moments, advice, success and failure stories, and educational content. Some projects will definitely help us more than social media, like Fonts In Use. Upload your collection on this platform. It’s powerful and attracts intellectual users and customers. That’s a great alternative to the toxic social media.

type.today on Fonts In Use

Of course, this advice might not be universal (or, for some, too universal), but it’s what I can share from my personal experience. I hope it will be helpful to those sitting alone, trying to make their own studio happen.